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United States Capitol Police early Tuesday resolved a situation in the Hart Senate Office Building atrium area, where a man had been threatening for hours to plunge himself from the seventh floor. The unidentified man turned himself over to Capitol Police at approximately 2:00 am, according to police sources familiar with the event. For more than eight hours, the man had stood about 50 feet above the ground on the outside ledge of the glass wall overlooking the building’s atrium as negotiators continued to speak with him through a translator in Mandarin Chinese, according to Capitol Police. He had climbed across the railing at about 5:45 pm on Monday.“The U.S. Capitol Police responded to this event, established communications with the individual, and after several hours of deliberate negotiations, convinced him to return to safety on the correct side of the railing,” Capitol Police spokeswoman Sergeant Kimberly Schneider said in an e-mail circulated after 3:00 am. Authorities had positioned an inflatable jump pad underneath him, but it was unclear whether they actually inflated it. Earlier in the evening, Senate Sergeant at Arms Terrance Gainer had expressed hopes that police would not have to use the device and that the situation can be resolved without the man jumping. He noted that police have dealt with the man previously but declined to comment further until the situation was resolved. The atrium had been closed but the building was not evacuated. However, Schneider said that the Hart Building “will open at its usual time on Tuesday, July 22, 2008. All streets are open for normal business.” Fourteen senators have offices on the seventh floor, including Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). |
